Princess Visenya's long silver blond hair was tied in a braid that bounced down the young woman's back. She rode fast along the road that led towards Sunspear. She loved riding because running made her feel free. Behind her, Ser Jaime Lannister, her sworn shield, followed her. The golden-haired man rode astride a stallion who did his utmost, despite the weight of his rider plus the armor the latter wore, to keep up with the mare and her mistress ahead of them.
Visenya slowed down as the city walls approached, aware that it would be highly dangerous to ride at that speed along the city streets and she did not want to risk hurting anyone or worse. The men guarding the city gate greeted her.
"Princess Visenya." They said in an obsequious tone. She smiled and raised her right hand and nodded in greeting before passing under the city walls. Ser Jaime approached her with his own horse.
"One of these days you will fall off your horse, if you keep riding like that, and you will break your neck and that day Prince Doran Martell will ask for my head." He said in a stern tone as they rode along one of the city streets. The princess' lips curved into a smile.
"Do not worry Ser Jaime, I have been riding since I was six years old. Most children have ponies as their first steeds, but I insisted on a horse." She replied in a casual tone. She loved riding horses and had done so since she was six years old. In fact, the first time she had ridden a horse she was even younger, but it was not she who held the reins but her cousin Obara, the eldest daughter of her uncle Oberyn, who shared her passion for horses.
"Accidents can happen even to the most experienced riders." Jaime replied. She ignored his comment and instead focused her attention on the people in the magnificent colorful robes that lined the streets of the city. The Dornish robes revealed much more than what the women and men of the rest of the kingdom wore. When Visenya's siblings came to visit her and their Dornish kinsmen, they would quickly abandon their South Westeros-style robes for Dornish-style clothes. Rhaenys' dresses were never as unclothed as the rest of the Dornish women, however, they were certainly less demure than they should have been. Aegon, on the other hand, wore robes like his uncles' that left the center of his chest uncovered.
"Dornish silk. The finest silk in Dorne. Come women and buy the best silk in Dorne." Shouted a merchant loudly, lifting a long midnight-blue stole. A woman holding a child by the hand looked at the silk in the stall. In the next stall, on the other hand, coloured spices of various kinds were being sold, many of them from Essos, Lys or somewhere else beyond the Narrow Sea.
We walked along the main street of the town, past buildings and towers of various heights, most with small windows. There were colorful domes of different sizes on some of the towers and other buildings. People walked along the street and from time to time someone would come out of a shop. The nobles were always followed by women, dressed more plainly and poorly than their ladies, carrying their ladies' purchases. They were almost always accompanied by a soldier, who would surely put his own lady's safety before that of her servant.
At one point, two children suddenly crossed the road. Visenya pulled on Vhagar's reins to stop the mare and not risk running over the children. The young woman cursed softly at the two reckless ones, then heard a woman's voice curse louder, then saw a girl who must have been about her age running towards the two children.
"Do you want to get yourselves killed?" The two children also had dark hair, and judging by their resemblance to the girl, they must be her siblings, or at least relatives. "Princess, please forgive the stupidity of my siblings." She added in a reverent tone, turning to Visenya.
"Children, I advise you to listen to your sister and look before you cross the road or you might get run over by a horse or carriage." The blonde said in a stern tone, turning to the two children who took on a mortified look and bowed their heads guiltily at the gesture that softened Visenya. "Please be more careful in the future." She then continued on her way to the castle, followed by Ser Jaime who had been staring at the scene in silence the whole time.
When they arrived at the castle, Visenya jumped down from the saddle at the castle gate, dressed in men's clothes as she always was when she rode. She and Obara found it much more comfortable to ride a horse in breeches than in a dress with a long skirt. The girl turned to stare at Vhagar and stroked her muzzle. The animal was sweating, and not just from the heat of Dorne.
"Princess Visenya, shall I take your mare to the stables?" A stableboy asked as he hurried towards her. The girl turned to look at him.
"Yes, thank you." She said, handing the mare's reins to the boy, then watched as Vhagar walked away with the stable boy towards the stables. Jaime handed the reins of his own horse to another stable boy who had approached him.
"Princess Visenya!" A voice called out and the young woman turned towards the entrance of the castle to see one of the older servants coming quickly towards her. The woman wore her gray and white hair pulled back behind her head. She was wearing an orange dress with a sun embroidered on her chest. Her name was Karyna and she had been in the service of the Martells since Prince Doran was a child. Her uncle had once confessed to her that he wasn't sure how old Karyna was, but that she must have been about the same age as his mother, Princess Nymeria, had she lived.
"Karyna, has something happened?" She asked worriedly. The woman stopped in front of her, out of breath, a sign that she must have walked all the way there. She put a hand to her chest, where her heart must have been beating wildly.
"Your uncle, Prince Doran Martell, wishes to see you in his solar. He says it is important." The woman replied as she caught her breath.
"I will join him immediately." She said, squeezing the woman's upper arm and smiling tenderly at her. "You know, maybe next time you should not run away, knowing that you are not as young as you used to be." She said amused, but also concerned for the servant's health. The other lowered her hand.
"You are right, but your uncle told me it was important and that he wanted to speak to you as soon as she returned from riding." She replied.
"Yes, but I don't think he wanted you to risk your life to bring me that message." She watched and then walked towards the castle.
Under other circumstances she would have changed before meeting her uncle or anyone else from her family, but Karyna had told her that this was an important matter and she was sure that her uncle would not resent her presenting herself to him without first removing her riding clothes. The people she passed on the way greeted her respectfully. When she reached the door of her uncle's solar, she found two men guarding it. It appeared to be business as usual, but the old servant had told her that the Prince of Dorne had something important to tell her.
"I was told my uncle wanted to see me." She said, one of the men knocked on the door, which opened a moment later and Prince Doran's sworn shield appeared on the threshold, responsible not only for protecting him but also for pushing the wheelchair to which the prince was confined due to gout.
"Princess Visenya, good morning." Her uncle's sworn shield greeted her.
"I was told my uncle wished to speak with me." She said, the man nodded his head in agreement and moved to let her pass. The girl crossed the door and saw her uncle sitting in his wheelchair behind the table in the center of the room. Oberyn was there too, standing beside his brother.
"Visenya, a letter has arrived from the capital, signed by the king." Uncle announced as the door closed behind his niece. It was not uncommon for the Sovereign to write letters, usually to Doran and his daughter, sometimes even to Oberyn and his nephews.
"Oh, is that what he wrote?" She asked, wondering why a letter from her father had caused such a stir that Doran had asked to see her as soon as she returned from her ride. She hoped that nothing serious had happened and that her father, siblings, uncles and stepmother were in good health.
"Your siblings' wedding is in a month and he would like you to be there." Uncle replied. But of course she should have thought of that as her siblings had been engaged for months and she had been a bit stunned when they had told her that Aegon was to marry Rhaenys, not because they were siblings as that was normal in their family, but because until a few days before she had heard of a possible engagement between Aegon and Lady Sansa Stark, daughter of Lord Stark and niece of Lyanna. Actually, it had only been rumored, so it was possible that it was just unfounded gossip.
"Of course I will be happy to attend my brother and sister's wedding." She replied, excited even at the thought of seeing the capital, for she had never set foot in the capital since she was an infant and her uncles had asked and been granted permission to raise her in Dorne. Her siblings would visit two or three times a year, staying for a month or so each time, and her father would come too, although he only came once a year because, as King, he could not be away from the capital for long, and the girl would have liked to join them and spend some time in the capital. Not to mention that her stepmother had never come to Dorne. She and Lyanna had a good relationship and wrote to each other regularly, though she was forced to do so secretly because her uncles hated her stepmother and fortunately they had never known that Jaime was helping her keep in touch with her father's new wife.
She knew the reasons for her uncles' animosity towards Lyanna, but she thought their hatred was exaggerated, or rather she thought that, despite what had happened, her mother would not have wanted her siblings to wish evil on anyone. Princess Elia had always been portrayed to her as a good and generous woman, so she found it hard to believe that such a woman could hate someone so much that she wished them to suffer. Certainly, if her mother had lived, her relationship with her husband's second wife would not have been easy, but she was sure that, in the name of the great goodness that distinguished her, her mother would at least have managed to have a civilized cohabitation with Lyanna.
"Oberyn will go with you and stand in for me. I would like to attend Aegon and Rhaenys' wedding, but my gout prevents me." He replied. The niece knew that her uncle was rarely seen in public to avoid appearing weak in the eyes of his enemies, and to attend her nephew's wedding would have meant showing her weakness to several of them, and it was likely that among the hundreds of people sure to be invited to the royal wedding would be some of her enemies.
"Very well, as you wish, Uncle." She replied, then turned directly to her uncle. "I suppose Ellaria will come with us." She added, doubting that her uncle would leave his lover in Dorne, considering they couldn't stay apart for long.
"Yes, of course I could never leave her here and go alone and then I think she will be thrilled at the thought of seeing the capital." The uncle replied with a smile. The niece smiled back at him.
"When do we leave?" She asked.
"You will leave next week." Doran replied and she nodded her head in agreement, thinking they would have plenty of time to get ready for the bath.
"If that's all, I'd like to change. I promised Trystane I would play a game of Cyvasse with him as soon as I returned from riding." She said, remembering at that moment the promise she had made to her cousin the evening before.
"Sure, go ahead and don't keep your cousin waiting." Her uncle replied and she smiled before leaving the room.
Meanwhile in King's Landing
Rhaenys and Aegon's wedding was about a month away. Lyanna had been trying to win the affection of her stepchildren. Not that she wanted to take their mother's place, but just to get along with them and, if possible, make them like her, but no matter how hard she tried, it had all been in vain.
Truth be told, the two boys behaved differently because while Rhaenys hated her and did little to hide it, she did what she could to diminish her authority and sadly most people behaved as if Rhaenys was the queen and truth be told, Lyanna would have been more than happy to cede her title and power to her were it not for the fact that she trembled for herself and her own future at the thought of Rhaenys ruling the realm and sadly, since the young woman was to marry Aegon, that future would one day materialize.
Aegon, on the other hand, mostly just avoided her and tried to pretend she did not exist. On the whole, he was a good boy, studious and inherited his father's talent for swordsmanship, and his stepmother liked to think that their relationship might have been better without the excessive influence his sister seemed to exert over him, for every time Lyanna managed to take steps to improve her relationship with her stepson, her sister would step in and her stepmother would step back.
Fortunately, Visenya seemed to think differently from her siblings, judging by the content of the letters they exchanged, for unlike her older siblings, the youngest of Elia's children seemed to have affection for her, or at least to write her warm words. Visenya's letters were one of the few good things in her life.
She had also tried her best to win the goodwill of the people, but with little success, as they seemed determined not to forgive her for the war and the death of Princess Elia. Both she and her stepdaughter did charity work, and the people adored her stepdaughter, who only needed to smile to win their hearts, not realizing that in reality Rhaenys was not generous at all, but only wanted to win people's hearts. If there was one thing the princess was good at, it was feigning a kindness her stepmother knew she did not possess.
The woman walked down one of the corridors of the Red Keep to her stepdaughter's bedroom. She had been told the princess was having one of the final fittings for her wedding dress. The one Sansa was to wear. Lyanna had arranged Aegon's marriage to her niece not out of ambition, but because she had reflected on the fact that if the Prince Promise had not been born of her and Rhaegar's union, perhaps it would have been born of Aegon and Sansa's union. Too bad Rhaenys had interfered and ruined everything. The queen's only consolation was that her niece never knew about the engagement, or she would have been heartbroken.
The princess's sworn shield stood guard at the door of her room as usual. The knight's name was Morgan, and he had been chosen as the princess's sworn shield after joining the Kingsguard. He was in his thirties, with long, dark, wavy hair and a light brown complexion. The queen had heard that her mother came from a land beyond the Narrow Sea and that Morgan's father had met her on a journey. She was a slave at the time and her husband fell in love with her upon meeting her, bought her and then gave her her freedom, and some time later the woman's gratitude for her savior turned to love and the couple were married.
"Queen Lyanna, Princess Rhaenys is trying on her wedding dress." announced the knight, who shared his lady's resentment of her stepmother and hid it behind feigned kindness.
"I know, I thought I'd come and see if everything was all right." Stark replied in a calm tone. The other stared at her in confusion for a few seconds, then there was a knock at the door.
"Come in." A female voice said from inside the room. Lyanna opened the door and stepped over the threshold. She immediately saw Rhaenys standing in front of the full-length mirror. She was wearing a pale silk dress with gold embroidery. The dress was long, with a fitted bodice and a slightly wider skirt, and a two meter long train. The sleeves were long, but the shoulders were bare and the wide neckline showed the top of the princess's small breasts.
"Stepmother, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Rhaenys asked, staring at the Stark's crossed reflection in the mirror. She motioned for the seamstress and her assistants to leave, then turned her back to the mirror and back to the wolf. The seamstresses bowed their heads in respect as Lyanna approached her husband's eldest daughter.
"I was curious to see your wedding gown. You look simply beautiful." She complimented, though she knew her compliment would not be appreciated.
"Yes, I am beautiful and the dress is wonderful." Rhaenys confirmed. "Now that you've seen it you can go, I'm sure you have more important things to do than waste time watching me try on my wedding dress." She asserted with her back turned and began to admire her own reflection in the mirror again, a sign that for her their conversation could be considered over. The queen, accustomed to her stepdaughter's behavior on this day being almost polite, did not bat an eyelid.
"I will leave you to try on your wedding dress." She said seriously and left the room. As she walked down the corridor, she thought of Visenya, who would finally be returning to the capital after leaving for Dorne as an infant. She looked forward to her stepdaughter's return because it would mean there was finally someone in the Red Keep who did not hate her or constantly blame her for failing to produce the famous Promised Prince. Rhaegar continued to insist, despite the fact that years had passed and every time it was clear that she had failed to conceive this month as well, he looked at her with contempt, convinced that it was her fault and hers alone. By now she had given up, but he had not, and he continued to insist that they try, and each time they failed, he took out his frustration on her. Part of her was grateful and at the same time surprised that he had been faithful to her and had never cheated on her in all those years, or if he had he had been very discreet and she had not known.